oyal manner in the same year. One of these concessions was the
abolition of slavery and the novel use of wages for farm work. By his
failure to keep this promise, serfdom continued in England four hundred
years afterwards.

Richard now became unpopular, and showed signs of worthlessness. He
banished his cousin Henry, and dispossessed him of his estates. This, of
course, irritated Henry, who entered England while the king was in
Ireland, and his forces were soon joined by sixty thousand malecontents.

Poor Richard wandered away to Wales, where he was in constant danger of
falling off, and after living on chestnuts knocked from the high trees
by means of his sceptre, he returned disgusted and took up his quarters
in the Tower, where he died of starvation in 1400.

Nothing can be more pathetic than the picture of a king crying for
bread, yet willing to compromise on tarts. A friendless king sitting on
the hard stone floor of the Tower, after years spent on board of an
elastic throne with rockers under it, would move even the hardened
historian to tears. (A brief intermission is here offered for unavailing
tears.)

[Illustration: A FRIENDLESS KING SITTING ON THE HARD STONE FLOOR OF THE
TOWER.]

CHAPTER XV.

MORE SANGUINARY TRIUMPHS: ONWARD MARCH OF CIVILIZATION GRAPHICALLY
DELINEATED WITH THE HISTORIAN'S USUAL COMPLETENESS.

The Plantagenet period saw the establishment of the House of Commons,
and cut off the power of the king to levy taxes without the consent of
Parliament. It also exchanged the judicial rough-and-tumble on horseback
for the trial by jury. Serfdom continued, and a good horse would bring
more in market than a man.

Agriculture was still in its infancy, and the farmer refused to adopt a
new and attractive plough because it did not permit the ploughman to
walk near enough to his team, that he might twist the tail of the
patient bullock.

The costumes of the period seem odd, as we look back upon them, for the
men wore pointed shoes with toes tied to the girdle, and trousers and
coat each of different colors: for instance, sometimes one sleeve was
black and the other white, while the ladies wore tall hats, sometimes
two feet high, and long trains. They also carried two swords in the
girdle, doubtless to protect them from the nobility.

[Illustration: SLAVES WERE BOUGHT AND SOLD AT THE FAIRS.]

Each house of any size had a "pleasance," and the "herberie," or physic
garden, which was the pio